Yes, give the swimmers of St. Charles a "Bravo!"-with an asterisk. It was almost a mistake-free performance.

Still, if Saturday's sectional was a dress rehearsal for next weekend's hoped-for upset of the favored, three-time defending state champion Fenwick Friars, the Saints know they aren't at state-championship speed quite yet.

"A good day, but we've still got a few things to work on," said Cabel.

Cabel's host Saints scored 320 points at the Norris Center to easily turn back the opposition-runner-up Elgin scored 202, third-place Conant 183-and there was no shortage of outstanding performances by St. Charles:

- The 200 medley relay team of Steve Munz, Harvey, Anthony Wilder and Chad Stone set a pool record of 1 minute 37.67 seconds.

- The 200 freestyle relay team of Munz, Stone, Ben Thayer and Brian Kuzniar turned in a pool mark of 1:29.19.

- Harvey added victories in the 200 IM (1:57.85) and 100 breaststroke (:59.25), and Munz won the butterfly (:53.12) and backstroke (:54.35).

- And, St. Charles qualified every one of its entries for the state meet except senior Chris Jones, who fell .71 short of the state cutoff time in the 500. Jones, though, qualified third in the 200.

"We had to swim on spirit today," said Cabel, "because we weren't fully shaved. Still, we looked good and that's a good sign."

Cabel didn't quite know what to make of another sign-the less-than-exciting showing of Ben Thayer, defending state champion in the 200 freestyle and state runner-up in the 500, who stumbled to third in the 500, behind Elgin's Kevin Jones (4:45.99) and Ben Culver. Thayer took first in the 200-his best event-but even there barely held off a charging Jones.

Asked to quantify his level of concern, Cabel said: "A little bit. He (Thayer) did what we asked him to do. He broke 4:50 (4:49.94), but he's as flat as a pancake right now because we're halfway through taper. In a meet like this, you've got to be focused enough to get through, but you also want to save something for next week, too."

Whether Thayer was saving something for next week wasn't a concern of Jones, who recorded the biggest victory of his career. "It feels awesome," said Jones, 22nd in the 500 at state last year. "I was just trying to hang with him. I was just waiting for him to make his move, but he never did. Last year, state wasn't as uplifting as I'd hoped. After today, though, I can't wait."

Also breaking through the St. Charles juggernaut was Geneva's Jay Walkington, who won both the 50 and 100 freestyle.

"When I looked at the heat sheets and saw that St. Charles was seeded first in every event but my two, that really hyped me up," said Walkington. "To be from a school with no team and no pool, and to win here is really cool."